Intellectual (Neo-) Imperialism: The Examples of “Islam[ism(s)]” and “Jihad[ism(s)]”

In any scientific endeavour, or considered as such, methodology and epistemology are paramount, not to mention ontology: what is the nature of the reality that we are studying? What is the nature of the knowledge that is being produced and its rationality? What are the methods applied to the field of study? However, when it to comes to “Islam”, the “Middle East”, or the “Orient”, the starting points are assumptions and truisms, particularly in “scientific” fields such as Political Science or International Relations, especially when the subject is the relation between politics and religion. In the last few decades, Islam has become a central point of reference for a wide range of political activities, arguments and opposition movements. The term “political Islam”, or “Islamism”, has been adopted by many scholars in order to identify this seemingly unprecedented irruption of Islamic religion into the secular domain of politics and thus to distinguish these practices from the forms of personal piety, belief, and ritual conventionally subsumed in Western scholarship under the unmarked category “Islam”. There have been tremendous, innumerable websites, voluminous publications and many projects on “Islamism(s)” and “Post-Islamism(s)”, the idea that political Islam had failed. However, when reality did not confirm that prediction, a new term was coined: “neo-Islamism”. This paper aims to explore the thesis that, as in other fields, these labels are nothing more than an attempt by Area Studies within Western academia to mould reality according to preconceived ideas and according to policy-oriented circles and funded by governmental organizations, and that, when dealing with “Islam” and “politics”, we are urgently in need of a different epistemology.

Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the perspective of Indonesia Defense Policy

The development and progression in humankind’s understanding of the world and life, ensured a continuous evolution in the response to events threatening our livelihoods. Humankind also developed techniques to deal with natural hazards, either by aiming to contain the forces of nature, or by altering human own behavior. The humanitarian assistance and disaster relief are crucially important in order to protect the nations. This research employed literature review method. The results showed that every nation should prepare and manage their capabilities in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), both in protection for own countries or in providing aids for the others. Military Operation Other Than War (MOOTW) does not involve the use or threat of violence but prioritizes the provision of HADR. In MOOTW, military forces synergize with other institutions/organizations, especially those related to diplomacy, economy, government, even politics and religion. Moreover, in handling disasters, especially in Indonesia, the combination between civilians and the military is crucial in realizing Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) and Civil-Military Coordination (CMCoord). Under certain mechanism, the military power is only used to support civilian institution in HADR.

Dreaming of Death and the Dead in the Stuart Political World Imaginary

William Laud played a critical role in the politics and religion in the reign of James I and especially that of his son, Charles I. There was great antagonism toward him by Puritans, and Laud’s close friendship with George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, made Laud even more controversial, as did his fight with the king’s jester, Archy Armstrong. Dreams were seen as having great significance at time of Laud, and Laud recorded his dreams in his journal. Dreams also played a role in the early Stuart political world. This essay examines how Laud’s enemies used his own dreams against him in the work of William Prynne, once Laud was arrested during the English Civil war. It also looks at how Laud was compared to also despised Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey in a number of political pamphlets that used dreams, such as Archy’s Dream and Canterburie’s Dream. Laud also appeared as a character in a dream of Charles I’s attendant Thomas Herbert the night before the king’s execution, where Laud came to comfort Charles.

Anti-Communism Politics

This research tried to raise the issue of communism regarding anti-communist politics in the perception of the Indonesian Anti-Communist Front of Yogyakarta City and its strategy to understand and the movement of communism. This field research with a qualitative approach in this research is outlined using qualitative descriptive methods. The research findings showed that the Indonesian Anti-Communist Front of Yogyakarta City has a strategy of resistance to communism by organizing rallies and even rallies always collaborating with other nationalist community organizations. FAKI Yogyakarta also always holds an annual event that commemorates Pancasila day by watching G30S/PKI films together to grow the nation's knowledge, especially the younger generation of strategy. The next is to oversee discussions that smell communist and views on politics and religion, The Discourse of the Indonesian Anti-Communist Front Yogyakarta city given the political movement of communism is In the power struggle my words about the Indonesian Communist Party is the goal of justifying various ways to achieve the desire for power (Politics), the goal of justifying all means. The discourse of the Indonesian Anti-Communist Front of Yogyakarta city views communist social viewpoints and beliefs consistent with its historical methods. Communists view religion as a result of the history of human development. Based on historical materialism, the beginning of religion was designed by man as an institution containing all aspects of goodness, beauty, justice, and the realm of Communists viewing religion as a human creation. Religion is an imaginary world. Communism, which has a very heinous problem with theology, causes distrust of God and even causes them to be anti-God, anti-Religion, and even aggressive towards religious groups. But part of the Indonesian Communist Party cadre is Islamic, so what the Indonesian Anti-Communist Front says does not represent a diverse reality about PKI and communism.

Has the Lack of a Unified Halal Standard Led to a Rise in Organised Crime in the Halal Certification Sector?

In recent years, halal certification has become an area of significant interest due to the high level of Muslim awareness about halal products, with the development of halal hubs and investments in Muslim countries. Unfortunately, the halal market is negatively affected by various factors, like the multiplicity of halal standards, disagreements between halal certification bodies and halal accreditation bodies, an increase in halal food crime in some countries, weakness of the authorities in ensuring the integrity of halal certification, and involvement with politics and religion, which have caused some anxiety among Muslim consumers. Therefore, the aim of this work is to inform lawmakers and animal welfare organisations in the EU regarding halal food. It shows data from literature regarding animal welfare in the EU and Islam, provides a critical consideration on the aim of a religious diet and its correlation with public health and food safety, and describes the state of the art of halal accreditation bodies (HAB) and halal certification bodies (HCB), in addition to providing information about gaps in the halal market, and a description of the unethical behaviour of some HCBs. The integrity of these bodies is necessary to make halal standards more comprehensive and efficient, and this can be achieved through the activation of a harmonised monitoring system for halal accreditation bodies in Muslim countries and national EU accreditation bodies.

Ramana Maharshi and the Colonial Encounter

<p>Recent scholarship on Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) follows the romanticism of hagiographical literature, presenting him as a purely spiritual and timeless figure, thus ignoring the political contours of colonial India. Scholarly literature, then, has effectively deracinated this internationally acclaimed figure from one of the most fascinating and transformative historical periods of the modern era. The current study seeks to correct ahistorical representations of Ramana Maharshi by considering the historical processes that determined his status as a Maharshi (Great Vedic Seer) and Advaitin. I aim to show that Ramana Maharshi's image as a timeless and purely spiritual figure actually locates him in his historical situation, and further, that his status as a Maharshi (Maharṣi) and Advaitin reflects the ways in which "the political‟ and "the spiritual‟ interacted during colonial India. This thesis will delineate the process by which Ramana's status as a Maharshi allowed his religious identity to shift from an unorthodox, localised, and ethnic-sectarian form to one in which he symbolised a religious authority in an orthodox and pan-Hindu way. In a broader context, then, this thesis seeks to address the following question: how, and to what extent, did colonial dynamics affect the ways that Hindus interpreted and represented their religious figures during the nationalist period? Here I will demonstrate that Ramana Maharshi represents a compelling case study in the ways in which Orientalist stereotypes about a "mystical East‟ affected the intersection of politics and religion in colonial India.</p>

Ramana Maharshi and the Colonial Encounter

<p>Recent scholarship on Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) follows the romanticism of hagiographical literature, presenting him as a purely spiritual and timeless figure, thus ignoring the political contours of colonial India. Scholarly literature, then, has effectively deracinated this internationally acclaimed figure from one of the most fascinating and transformative historical periods of the modern era. The current study seeks to correct ahistorical representations of Ramana Maharshi by considering the historical processes that determined his status as a Maharshi (Great Vedic Seer) and Advaitin. I aim to show that Ramana Maharshi's image as a timeless and purely spiritual figure actually locates him in his historical situation, and further, that his status as a Maharshi (Maharṣi) and Advaitin reflects the ways in which "the political‟ and "the spiritual‟ interacted during colonial India. This thesis will delineate the process by which Ramana's status as a Maharshi allowed his religious identity to shift from an unorthodox, localised, and ethnic-sectarian form to one in which he symbolised a religious authority in an orthodox and pan-Hindu way. In a broader context, then, this thesis seeks to address the following question: how, and to what extent, did colonial dynamics affect the ways that Hindus interpreted and represented their religious figures during the nationalist period? Here I will demonstrate that Ramana Maharshi represents a compelling case study in the ways in which Orientalist stereotypes about a "mystical East‟ affected the intersection of politics and religion in colonial India.</p>

Spiritualization of Ecology and (De)politicization

This article examines the political effects of the spiritualization of ecology by considering the theoretical debate opposing ecology as subpolitics (i.e., a vector of new forms of politicization) and ecology as post-politics (i.e., a vector of depoliticization). This debate addresses the links between ecology, spirituality, and politics and hinges on the contrasting ways in which these terms may be understood. This study brings empirical specilcity to this debate by analyzing how it unfolds among environmentalist farmers in France. The lndings show how different views on ecology, spirituality, and politics coexist in one and the same movement depending on the farmers’ backgrounds. This demonstrates the ongoing redelnition of spirituality as a cultural category crosscutting the modern opposition between politics and religion, and highlights an understanding of the spiritualization of ecology as the addition of alternative political perspectives, more or less openly competing, rather than as a one-dimensional process of (de)politicization.

Aristotle’s Mean in Politics and Religion

In this paper, we investigate the political and religious projection of Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean. According to Aristotle and his virtue ethics theory, humans succeed the mean when they acknowledge in what they are physically inclined to. If someone knows towards where she is deviating, either in terms of exaggeration or understatement, then she can, at some point, achieve the mean as the end goal of ethical virtue. But what if these moral evaluations refer to collective processes, such as politics, culture and religion? In this case, the notion of “intermediate” could be paralleled with the notion of ‘optimized’. A way of locating the optimized point on the political or cultural public sphere is to acknowledge in what people are politically or culturally inclined to. This seems to be guided by their cultural traditions, political history and aims. In politics and modern democracies, the doctrine may be applied in virtues, such as justice. Excess in the administration of justice causes "witch hunts" and deficiency lawlessness. Respectively, in today’s religious-oriented societies - countries that could be ranked according to their religiosity – where there is little tolerance in their permissible cultural patterns, the application of Aristotle’s mean reveals interesting findings. More specifically, in the case of the virtue of honor, the excess may lead to honor crimes and deficiency to contempt.